Court Denies City’s Motion to Vacate Stop-and-Frisk Ruling

UPDATED | A federal appellate court denied a motion by New York City attorneys to vacate the August ruling of a Manhattan U.S. District Court judge who ordered the installation of a monitor to oversee the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy after finding it was racially biased and unconstitutional.

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Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on Nov. 11

Friday’s ruling, by the same three-judge panel that ordered federal judge Shira Scheindlin removed from the case on Oct. 31, effectively put an end to the city’s attempt to try to have her decision overturned before Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office on Jan 1.

The city, which filed the motion to vacate on Nov. 9, is still pursuing an appeal, which is scheduled to be argued before the appellate judges in March. But Mr. de Blasio has said he intends to order city attorneys to drop the appeal once he is sworn in as mayor.

“This marks the end of the Bloomberg administration’s unseemly effort to short-circuit the appeals process and undo the district court’s rulings before Bill di Blasio takes office,” said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, whose organization was involved in the litigation that led to Judge Scheindlin’s ruling and subsequent stop-and-frisk order. “Hopefully, the legal theatrics will now end and we can all go back to reforming stop and frisk.”

New York City’s Corporation Counsel, Michael Cardozo, said, “the City is moving ahead full speed with its appeal, and we maintain that the City’s police force has acted lawfully in its application of stop, question and frisk.”